The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed a top Hamas commander this week inside Jabaliya, a city inside northern Gaza, along with dozens of additional terrorists during precision airstrikes.
The IDF’s operations inside Gaza come after Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists launched an unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, murdering 1,400 Israelis, wounding 5,300+, and kidnapping approximately 240.
Ibrahim Biari, Commander of the Jabaliya Battalion, was targeted because he was” “responsible for a significant area from which the terrorists emerged to carry out the massacre in Israel on October 7th … [and] he was a senior terrorist who has been the dominant leader of their military activity during this war in northern Gaza,” said IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
Israel’s enemies and the global Left immediately called the strike on the terrorist facilities a bombing of a “refugee camp,” saying that it killed well over a hundred civilians. The claim elicited similar outrage to when Hamas lied by claiming that Israel bombed a hospital last month killing 500 people when, in reality, a terrorist rocket malfunctioned and blew up in the hospital parking lot and is estimated to have killed far fewer people.
Ynet, one of the top publications in Israel, reported that IDF troops were engaged in intense fighting for control over the terrorist base when they discovered that Hamas had used a “disturbing tactic.”
“Roughly 100 women and children were pushed forward by Hamas to act as a human barrier,” the report said.
Hagari said that the strike on the terrorist facilities “additionally caused the collapse of the underground military infrastructure, including terror tunnels under the camp, which further caused the collapse of additional structures.”
“These once again demonstrates how murderous terrorists use civilians as a ‘human shield,’ civilians whom we have called upon to evacuate for their own safety,” he added. “This is a cynical tactic that they have, and will continue, to employ. During the fighting, Sinwar and all of Hamas’ senior officials are attempting to manufacture images of a destroyed Gaza and dead Gazans at the hands of Israel and the IDF.”
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Richard Goldberg — who served in the Trump administration as the Director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction for the White House National Security Council, and who now is a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies — pushed back on claims that Israel had bombed a “refugee camp.”
“Did Israel target civilians? No. Israel targeted terrorists,” he posted on X. “Did Israel hit a refugee camp? No. Israel hit Hamas. The UN calls the area a ‘refugee camp’ but it has no refugees & is not a camp. Was it a war crime? Hamas with UN help did commit a war crime by using human shields.”
Did Israel target civilians? No. Israel targeted terrorists.
Did Israel hit a refugee camp? No. Israel hit Hamas. The UN calls the area a "refugee camp" but it has no refugees & is not a camp.
Was it a war crime? Hamas with UN help did commit a war crime by using human shields.
— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) November 1, 2023
Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy noted that the terrorist infrastructure that Israel hit constituted a “legitimate military target” and that the area was “not a refugee camp.”
He also added that Israel warned all Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza for the last three weeks.
Related: Hamas Official: Tunnels Are For Protecting Terrorists, Not Palestinian Civilians